Today is something of a happy day for lots of state employees in the “administrative” phase of state government. That’s because it’s payday for thousands of office workers employed by the state and their paychecks include that contractual 3 percent wage hike. That’s the raise that Gov. David Paterson wants them to forgo due to the state’s dire fiscal outlook.

That the raises are coming now, however, illustrates why state workers may be wary of some of the governor’s other proposals, including a proposal to “lag’ their paychecks again.

The raises actually took effect at the start of the new fiscal year, but because of prior lags instituted in earlier budget crises, state workers get paychecks for the actual time that they worked a few weeks late. The lag is then made up at retirement or when workers leave state service.

Workers in the “institutional” functions, such as correctional officers or those who do direct care of people in group homes or other institutions will see their raises next week.

Update: Correctional officers, as Joey911 notes represented by NYSCOPA are still negotiating their contracts and won’t get their raises. Other prison workers represented by CSEA, though are on track for their 3 percent raises.

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